New Defender's Study Bible Notes

2:15Love not the world. Note that this command is absolute, not relative. It does not say: “Don’t love the world too much,” but “not at all!” See also Romans 12:2; Galatians 1:4; James 4:4. The “world” here does not mean the earth or its people (God Himself so loved the world that He gave His Son to save its people) but rather the world as a “system,” with its possessions, positions and pleasures (contrast II Corinthians 6:10.

2:16pride of life. These three classes of temptations correspond to the three ways in which Satan deceived Eve (Genesis 3:6) and the three ways in which he unsuccessfully tried to deceive Christ (Luke 4:2-12). Note:

2:17passeth away. Literally, “is passing away.” Under the domain of God’s curse because of sin, the “whole creation” is “in pain” (Romans 8:21), under its “bondage of corruption” (that is, “decay”—Romans 8:20), and is literally disintegrating back into the “dust”—the basic elements from which it was formed. Scientifically, this is essentially what is known as the universal law of increasing entropy, a law squarely negating the imaginary evolutionary progress of the world. See also such Scriptures as Matthew 24:35; I Peter 1:24-25; Hebrews 1:11-12; and Hebrews 12:27. There are many others of like import.

2:17abideth for ever. In contrast to the law of physical decay, God does not change (James 1:17), nor does His Word (Psalm 119:89). Even though their physical bodies are now under the curse, those who do God’s will in accepting Christ will receive new bodies, eternal in character, when Christ returns (Philippians 3:20-21; Revelation 21:4; 22:3-5).